The plastic floats you may see in this section of the river are connected to Randy Morlock’s crayfish traps. Randy has been setting his traps along the Tualatin River for more than thirty years. Randy crayfishes the Tualatin from around June 1 to August 15 when the water gets too warm. He sells the crayfish to biological houses where they are preserved and dissected for educational purposes. When asked if he ever eats the crayfish, he replied “No, I’ve never eaten a single crayfish in my entire life. I’ve just never been interested in eating them. It’s a lot of work for very little food, but I’ve heard they’re quite tasty. Please do not disturb the crayfish traps.
Tualatin hosted the annual Tualatin Crawfish Festival from 1951 to 2022 which included a Crawfish eating contest. In 1970 a contestant ate a record of 170 crayfish. The festival had a colorful history including a 1976 voodoo curse from the self-proclaimed Voodoo Queen of the Louisiana Beaux Bridge Crawfish Festival on the Tualatin Crawfish Festival for attempting to steal the title of crawfish supremacy.